Vocation of CPM

“All our efforts will be aimed at provoking surprise, amazement and pleasure, and at stimulating and constantly renewing the public’s interest for contemporary art”

Laurent Le Bon, director of the Centre Pompidou-Metz from 2010 to 2014

The Centre Pompidou-Metz is France’s first major cultural decentralisation project. The Centre Pompidou has brought its model to the region, and offered its know-how and collections in a unique partnership with local government bodies, which not only provide the necessary funding but also guarantee independence of scientific and cultural choices.

Respecting the values of the Centre Pompidou in its generosity, open to all publics and to all forms of current-day creation, the Centre Pompidou-Metz illustrates, through its relationship both to society and to culture, the renewal of the Centre Pompidou’s strategy refocused on its prime vocation, namely to form a platform of exchanges between French society and creation.

The Centre Pompidou-Metz is neither a branch nor an annex of the Centre Pompidou but a sister institution, independent in its scientific and cultural choices, able to develop its own programme in the spirit of the Centre Pompidou, and relying on the latter’s know-how, network and notoriety. In conveying these values, it has an extraordinary advantage, that of being able to draw from the collections of the Centre Pompidou, which, with 76,000 works, boasts one of the world’s two finest collections in the field of modern and contemporary art, and the largest collection in Europe.

The Centre Pompidou-Metz has been devised as a unique experience, a space where you can discover artistic creation in all its shapes and sizes, a living place where events take place all year round. The architecture of Shigeru Ban and Jean de Gastines make it an exceptional place. It is also a generous place as its publics are at the heart of the project, and a place of excellence thanks to its multidisciplinary programme based on innovative temporary exhibitions of international level.

The cultural project proposed by the Centre Pompidou-Metz is structured around four priorities:

Present and help discover all forms of artistic creation;

Provide keys for interpreting the history of art since 1905;

Arouse emotion in and invite the spectator to understand the world through art;

Reach out to new publics.

At the heart of the Grande Région, the Centre Pompidou-Metz relates to and completes the activities of the various cultural stakeholders.

Alongside the exhibitions, a cultural programme (performing arts, cinema, conferences) has been built up, using a multidisciplinary approach, in the spirit of the Centre Pompidou model. This programme, relating to all areas of creation, is essentially deployed around exhibition themes so as to offer an extension to them.

Independent cycles and exceptional events are regular features each year, and highlight a specific theme or an area of creation. The main lines of this programme are: encourage discovery, provoke surprise and propose experiences to the public by cross-linking disciplines and creating moments of conviviality.

The Centre Pompidou-Metz is also the author of joint productions in relation with the performing arts events proposed by the Centre Pompidou and companies. It gives impetus to specific creations involving a choreographer, with an artist or an author.